Passionate advocate for mediation

Peace maker … Jennifer David spent her life working to get mediation recognised in Australia's courts and tribunals.

At Professor Jennifer David's memorial service, one of the speakers suggested that she be given the title "Australia's Doyenne of Mediation''.

''Warrior of Mediation'' would also have been an apt title - someone who fought hard so that others may have their own disputes resolved more peacefully.

Mediation - a gentler, often more effective and cheaper method of achieving a good legal outcome - had a great champion in David, who devoted the bulk of her professional life to introducing, teaching and practising it in Australia.

Introducing mediation in Australia was not an easy task, but David thrived in difficult circumstances - and had battled the rigidity of the legal system and its culture for much of her adult life.

Jennifer Anne Johnson was born in Ireland on September 6, 1941, the daughter of Alexander Johnson, a doctor, and his wife, Winifred (nee Scriven). The family moved to Australia when she was eight. She was educated in Toowoomba and Perth and dreamed of becoming a ballerina, but an injury put an end to those hopes. An excellent student, she took a place in law at the ANU. She was the only female graduate, but despite finishing at the top of her class struggled to find work in the traditional law firms - so instead she took a graduate position in the attorney-general's department.

She lectured in law at the University of Sydney while, after a brief marriage to Charles Furey, raising two children. After her divorce, she changed her surname to David, after David and Goliath, thinking of it as a name of strength.

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In 1985, David took a sabbatical and went to Canada, looking for a better way of treating juvenile offenders in the Australian justice system. What she found in Canada was mediation. Enthused, she brought it back to Sydney championing mediation as an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and set out to change the country's legal system and make it one that focused more on resolving disputes than joining in battle.

In 1986, David introduced the first ADR lectures at the University of Sydney. In 1989 she was instrumental in establishing the dispute resolution centre at Bond University and became the founding director of the centre, and foundation chief executive of Lawyers Engaged in ADR. In 1989 she was made the Foundation Freehill Hollingdale and Page professor of dispute resolution at the University of Technology.

Further prominent appointments followed; the founding director of the centre for dispute resolution at University of Technology, adjunct professor of law at UTS and Macarthur, a foundation member of the federal government's national ADR advisory council at ANU and founding member of the Law Society of NSW dispute resolution committee.

She conducted almost 600 courses in mediation, general dispute resolution and negotiation in Australia and eight other countries. Her students included High Court judges, Supreme Court judges, United Nations delegates (in New York), and justice administrators in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the US.

Colleagues, friends and students spoke of her personal warmth, her remarkable teaching skills, her razor-sharp intellect, curiosity for life and her ability to bring up two children as a single parent while forging an academic career.

The integration of mediation into Australia's courts and tribunals is a direct result of her leadership and work. It was not easily achieved, as many traditional lawyers were keen to protect their turf, and ensure that the adversarial system of litigation stayed adversarial. But a testament to David's energy and commitment is the existence now of hundreds of pieces of legislation around all the jurisdictions of Australia that have enshrined mediation.

David found deep happiness in the last 15 years of her life with her partner in law and life, Alysoun Boyle. The two set up a bush retreat outside Canberra and David joined the Rural Fire Brigade, created an extensive garden and entertained. She adored classical music, opera and ballet and her own creativity blossomed as she practiced embroidery, silversmithing and painting.

Jennifer David is survived by Alysoun, children Edward and Kathleen, grandchildren Rufus and Clyde and siblings Nigel and Carol.